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Case Study · Full-Stack Build

Secure payments,
zero platform
overhead.

A complete Stripe payment integration for a home bakery — built on serverless architecture so card data never touches the server, orders write automatically to the database, and every purchase triggers a CRM confirmation email. No monthly SaaS fee. No proprietary lock-in.

Client
Bake Cook & Create
by Allie C.
Industry
Home Bakery ·
Food & Lifestyle
Project Type
Payment Integration ·
Automation Build
Stack
Stripe Web Hosting Database CRM Repo
Status
Live
BCC order landing page — Fresh from the Oven
01
The Problem

A real business needing real checkout.

A licensed home bakery operating on a single cottage food permit needed a way to accept payments online — without paying a platform like Shopify $39/month before a single sale was made.

Template site builders offered checkout, but came with proprietary lock-in, limited customization, and recurring fees that eat into small margins. What was needed was a custom integration that worked exactly the way the business did — and cost nothing to run.

02
What I Built

End-to-end, fully automated checkout.

A serverless Stripe integration — checkout initiated from the site, processed through a hosting function (so no secret keys ever touch the browser), and confirmed via Stripe webhook.

On a successful payment, the webhook fires a second hosting function that writes the order record to the database and triggers a CRM confirmation email automatically. The customer gets their receipt; the baker gets her order — without touching a thing.

03
The Outcome

Full checkout running at near-zero cost.

  • Live Stripe checkout — no platform middleman, no monthly SaaS fee
  • PCI compliant by design — card data never touches the server
  • Every confirmed order auto-writes to the database for records and fulfillment
  • CRM confirmation email fires automatically on every purchase
  • Entire integration runs on the hosting platform's free tier — $0/month infrastructure

The Experience

Walk through
the actual order.

Four screens, one flow — from first contact to a confirmed pickup point. Everything below is live, not a mockup.

Order form step 1: your details
Step 1 · Your Details
Contact info captured once, used to auto-fill confirmation and pickup coordination.
Order form step 2: this week's menu
Step 2 · This Week's Menu
Live inventory — only what's actually available this week is shown.
Order form step 2: size and shape options
Step 2 · Size & Shape
Each item can carry its own variant options, priced independently.
Order form step 3: choose a meeting point
Step 3 · Meeting Point
GPS-driven pickup/delivery locations pulled from a database, each with transit info and a flat travel fee — this became its own case study (BCC Delivery & Pickup).
Order form step 4: review your order and pay
Step 4 · Review & Pay
Order, meeting point, and timeslot confirmed in one summary — then handed off to Stripe for secure payment.

Under the Hood

How the payment
flow actually works.

No jargon. A plain walkthrough of what happens between "Add to cart" and "Your order is confirmed" — and why each step is designed the way it is.

1
Customer initiates checkout
The customer clicks "Order" on the BCC site. Instead of sending payment details to the site directly, the page calls a serverless function from your website host — a small piece of server-side code that runs in the cloud on demand.
Site → Website Host Function
2
Website host creates a Stripe checkout session
The website host's function holds the Stripe secret key securely — it never appears in the browser or in the site's code. It creates a checkout session with the order details and returns a session ID to the browser.
Website Host Function → Stripe API
3
Customer completes payment on Stripe's hosted page
The customer is redirected to Stripe's hosted checkout page — a Stripe-owned URL with Stripe's own SSL certificate. Stripe handles all card entry, validation, and processing entirely on their servers. No payment data ever touches the BCC site or passes through the website's hosting service.
Stripe hosted checkout · stripe.com domain · PCI compliant
4
Stripe fires a webhook on success
When payment is confirmed, Stripe sends a webhook — a secure server-to-server notification — to a second website host function. This is the trigger for everything downstream. The webhook is verified cryptographically to prevent spoofing.
Stripe Webhook → Website Host Function
5
Order writes to database automatically
The webhook function extracts the order details from Stripe's payload and writes a new record to the BCC database Orders table — customer name, email, items, amount, timestamp, and status. The baker can see every order in one place without logging into Stripe.
Website Hosting Function → Database API
6
CRM sends the confirmation email
The same webhook function calls the CRM provider's API to trigger a transactional confirmation email to the customer — personalized with their name, order details, and next steps. No manual follow-up needed. The entire sequence from payment to receipt takes seconds.
Website Hosting Function → CRM Provider API · Auto-sent
Stripe hosted checkout with order summary and card entry form

Why This Stack

Three reasons this is built the way it is.

Every decision in this integration was made deliberately — for security, maintainability, and cost.

🔒
Security by architecture
Secret keys live only in the website host's environment variables — never in the browser, never in the codebase. Stripe handles all card data. Webhooks are cryptographically verified. This isn't a workaround; it's how Stripe recommends you build.
⚙️
Zero ongoing platform cost
Website host functions run serverless — you only pay when they run, and free tier covers thousands of calls per month. Database and CRM provider's free tiers handle the downstream automation. Stripe charges per transaction only. No monthly SaaS fee, ever.
🔗
One payment, full automation
The webhook is the keystone: one confirmed payment triggers the database write and the CRM email in the same function call. Nothing falls through the cracks. The baker never needs to manually log an order or send a receipt.

For Your Business

What this means
if you sell online.

"You don't need a $39/month platform to take payments. You need a well-built integration — once — that runs itself."

— Creative Studio @ The Knead & Bloom Co.

Food & cottage makers
Whether you're selling baked goods, preserves, soaps, or handmade goods under a cottage license — this integration scales with you. Sell one product or twenty; the cost stays the same.
Small service businesses
Take deposits, sell packages, or accept bookings. The same Stripe + website host architecture handles all of it — and every transaction logs itself to your records automatically.
Nonprofits & mission-driven orgs
Accept donations, sell event tickets, or run a merchandise shop — with all the professionalism of a large organization and none of the overhead. Your budget goes to your mission, not your platform.

Ready to build?

Your checkout,
your way.

If you're ready to accept payments without paying a platform to do it — let's talk. This is exactly what the Studio was built for.

Start a conversation ✦ ← Back to portfolio